Contact Info

Contest Info

I love games! And so, I frequently hold listener contests, which some say are difficult but others say are fun. Ambiguity and the inevitable mess up by Grok make them an interesting exercise. All contests are funded by listeners, and donations can be sent to Farmer Joe (#627309). In the case of correct answers by multiple people, chatbot randomly rolls for a winner. My prizes usually consist of five (5) food and booze items in Farmer Joe's inventory.

Current Contests:

Wednesday

Questions!

I ask you a question, and you answer it. Nothing could be easier. Although my questions can be tricky, or hard. Or make no sense. Or have very little information to go on. It's up to you to figure it out! Send your answers by kmail to GrokTheMad. I eliminate all the incorrect answers and only the winner(s) are left.

Thursday

What's In The Can?

I put items in my tin can and shake them. Each song you get a guess. You have to guess the what the items are, the correct number of items, and possibly their descriptions (like color, type, etc). I go through the answers and tell you the wrong ones and the right ones until we get it all figured out! Each song we go through without a correct guess by anyone gets you a clue.

Saturday (every other week)

Game Show Night!

We play different game shows like Match Game, I've Got A Secret and Family Feud. Others are in the works as well. This is where we get together a conference bridge and a panel of guests will play either for or against the folks in chat for prizes! My most magnificent helper in this is Jelloboi, and he does a lot of prep work and wrangling of panelists to make this happen.

STATUS UPDATE: This is currently on hiatus until I can figure out why my sound quality is so poor. Until I can bring you an acceptable listening experience, I will, unfortunately, need to put this on hold. I will be bringing you other contests though, so stay tuned!

GrokTheDJ

Grok began as a DJ on Radio KOL in January of 2006. Although hired in November of 2005, a slot was not yet available in the schedule.

Grok's radio shows are collectively called Groxycore Radio. A particular radio show does not necessarily follow a theme. However, given that a show can contain many different genres of music in a short space of time, the segueway between songs is always important. The shows are usually family friendly, although from time to time things can happen which might cause parents to call out "earmuffs!" for the young chilluns.

Grok's loyal radio listeners are called Groxygenarians. They are distinguished as such by not identifying themselves as Groxygenarians in their player profiles or by any other method, including Grok naming them. They are, therefore, always present but never noticed. Like ninjas. Or tooth plaque.

Grok regularly runs challenging contests for his listeners. These include logic puzzles, trivia with a twist and "what's in the can". Grok also ran the "Great Martini Giveaway" giving away 46, 044 martinis to a number of players. Grok's Saturday shows are sometimes run as a game show with players skyping in to answer questions.

Origin of Grok's name

GrokTheMad's name is frequently questioned as coming from Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land. In actuality, it came from needing a name with which to register a character for playing the Kingdom Of Loathing. And being as Grok has only four letters, was easy to pull from an addled brain, type and remember for a lazy, lazy person, it stuck.

The Mad was added later, after wanting a distinguishing feature with which to identify the character, and debating amongst several now forgotten choices. This took about a second and a half of real time.

Grok's Personal Info

Brief History Of Grok

Grok was a semi-professional singer for 10 years, touring the world with two seperate singing troupes. He's got a background in drama, doing dramatic theatre, opera and many, many musicals. His official degree is a triple major in English, Communcations and Social Sciences (oddly enough, called a B.S.) He's a hobbyist writer, having "won" NaNoWriMo several years in a row (but currently on hiatus). His writing works and poetry have appeared in both print (newspapers and books) as well as online (but does that count?)

Grok grew up in Tucson, Arizona, went to high school there and did two years in college at Northern Arizona Univeristy, when they were still the Lumberjacks. Go Jacks! He studied in the Musical Theatre program there, and eventually won the distinction of a nomination for an Irene Ryan award for a minor role in Sondheims's "A Little Night Music."

Finishing up his college at Eastern Michigan University, Grok also had a chance to audition for a spot at the North Carolina School Of The Arts for both Set Design & Stage Management and Acting. However, as the realization settled on him that he did not want to live and work in New York, he gave up that dream and now is happy to play supporting roles and do stage work behind the scenes for his local community theatre.

AT EMU Grok did a DJ stint for 2 years on the local radio station. His future wife also worked on the show as "Chief Engineer" although she never spoke, being the shy type. She could switch carts and discs like a madwoman though.

Current

Hobbies

Grok is a tabletop gamer, playing and running RPG's for many years. Games include: Dungeons and Dragons (original and D20), Champions! (but not FRed, sadly), Mutants and Masterminds, Star Wars, Fudge (various), Legend Of The 5 Rings, 7th Sea, Vampire, Werewolf, Amber Diceless, Deadlands (once), and some crappy home grown stuff. Grok has also LARP'ed quite a bit, and was in a steady monthly outdoor fantasy LARP for 2 years (lightning bolt! lightning bolt!).

Currently between games, although looking to start something up right quick with his bonehead gaming group. Grok loves games of all types, especially card/board games and has attended many gaming Cons (the last one being GenCon 2002). He owns a modded Xbox (31337 mod, software only, bitches, so no Live banz0rz for me!) as well as a PS2 and several handheld Nintendo units.

Grok is a a technology geek, having any computers in various states of disarray. He's proficient with several OSes, loves *NIX, programs in Perl whenever possible and thinks MySQL rulez above all.

Grok loves to camp outdoors, and the outdoors in general, which is somewhat conflicting with the computer geekiness which more or less requires indoors and electricity. But he makes it work the best he can.

Grok also loves to travel, alone and with family. He's been to 49 of the 50 states (Alaska, she-bitch temptress that she is, shall soon be his) 5 different countries and 2 continents. He's been to the tropics of Hawai'i and The Bahamaian Islands.

Real Life

Grok is an IT manager who works with technology all day, and lurves it and hates it simultaneously. Grok works for a non-profit health care company in Michigan running an Operations and a Helpdesk team.

Grok lives in Southeastern Michigan with his wife and four(!) children, 2 dogs and a cat. And a hamster named Eddie Hamtaro Wiggles.

Distinguishing Features

Grok was the last hire of outgoing Hiring Director, Faustus Pringle. Faustus is still apologizing to station management as of this writing.

Grok's musical collection is best described as ecclectic. Other words that have been used to describe it are crappy, reprehensible, second-rate, valueless and omgwtfbbq.

Grok will never play anything by ICP or Barbara Streisand, and will kill any bastard out there who mashes them up.